Odocoileus—Deer

Two species occur in the region today: Odocoileus hemionus, the Mule Deer, and O.
virginianus, the White-tailed Deer. The former occurs throughout the region. The latter is
mainly eastern and southern, occurring along the eastern slopes of the eastern mountains in New
Mexico and to the east. In northern New Mexico, they were common on the eastern slopes of the
Sangre de Cristo Mountains, but rare or absent to the west in the Rio Grande drainage (Findley et
al. 1975). A small subspecies occurs in southwestern New Mexico.

The two species differ in the form of the antlers and in some skull features, but generally are
otherwise indistinguishable osteologically. The small size of the southwestern subspecies of O.
virginianus, however, may allow identification.

Odocoileus sp.—Deer

Cranial and post-cranial material that can be identified as Odocoileus generally can be
identified to the species level only with reasonably large portions of antlers or with a very well
preserved skull. The result is a number of records at the generic level and relatively few (and
somewhat suspect) identifications to species. Deer remains appear to be rarer than would be
expected if they were as common in the past as they are today.

Colbert (1950) listed "large cervid" from Ventana Cave, but went on to suggest it
might represent one of the western species of Odocoileus which would seem to indicate that
it was not large enough for Cervus.

Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque 1817)—Mule
Deer

Members of the genus Odocoileus are notoriously difficult to identify on post-cranial
material or on the absence of specific cranial elements such as antlers or lacrimals.

The Dark Canyon deer (Tebedge 1988) is identified on the basis of a dentary with p3-m3, a lower
incisor, and a fragment of a lower molar. He apparently assigned to material to this species since
he found no morphological differences from modern Mule Deer material other than slightly larger
size of the Dark Canyon material. The Blackwater Draw Fauna specimen was based solely on an upper
third premolar (Slaughter 1975).

The Pumphouse Canyon site (Harris 1993c) has been moved from Wisconsin age to Late
Wisconsin/Holocene, there being insufficient data to date the site more specifically.

Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann
1780)—White-tailed Deer

The problems involved in identification have been noted elsewhere. Harris' (1993c) record
from the Blackwater Draw Fauna is withdrawn; I have been unable to locate a source for the record
and suspect it was the result of failing to follow a line accurately across a table.